How to Not Fall in Love
by Alet-san
Summary: Eventual SlashYaoiwhatever stupid termoftheweek is being used to describe OMG TEH GAYZ. Picks up a few weeks after Healing Broken Things, and follows Sano's misadventures in Kyoto. You don't have to read HBT first. Pairing will be obvious later.


_Step One: Plans are for sissies. Never ever make one. If circumstances are such that you can't possibly avoid making a plan, it is imperative that you stop no more than halfway through (preferably much sooner) and just run with what you have. It'll all turn out fine in the end. Except for the parts where it doesn't._

Sagara Sanosuke was pouting.

No, that's not right. He was _scowling._ He was _snarling_. He was _expressing displeasure_. He wasn't _pouting_. "Pouting" implied that the pouter would be feeling sadness in some way, shape, and/or form, and if there one thing Sano _wasn't_ (besides pouting), it was sad.

After all, why should he be sad? Sure, Katsu had left to go do sickening, lovey-dovey things with Aoshi (_Aoshi!_) in Kyoto, but that didn't have anything to do with Sano, did it? I mean, just because his best friend (well, _maybe_-best-friend . . . he was kinda tied with Kenshin, but in so completely different ways, and Sano was never quite sure who was the "best") had run off to Kyoto with his lover (who was _Aoshi_) didn't mean that Sano was going to fall apart into a nervous wreck. Sano was a grown man, after all – so _what_ if Katsu had gone (with _Aoshi_)_ almost_ four hundred kilometers away (four hundred, short a few _paltry_ 29 kilometers) . . . it wasn't like he _cared_. So Katsu was gone now (with _Aoshi_). So fucking what????

Sagara Sanosuke was pouting (as previously stated).

The least ridiculous explanation offered for this by his irritating, nosy friends – who, besides being irritating and nosy, seemed to have a chronic lack of anything better to do than pry into Sano's personal affairs (and occasionally save Japan/Tokyo/the dojo/themselves/a random person they met on the streets/a kitten from certain death/doom/destruction/torture/a bath) – was that Sano was missing his friend Katsu, who, shortly after the burning of his house, had decided to relocate in Kyoto, and was staying in the Aoiya until such a time as he could find his own house. From all reports, Katsu was staying at the Aoiya not so much for the reason that it was an inn, and had rooms for rent for that purpose, but because of _Aoshi_. Shinomori _Aoshi_, who (by all accounts) was not _only_ the object of Katsu's des . . . affect . . . lu . . . . . . . . . . less than pure thoughts . . . but himself inclined to be . . . more-than-friendly to Katsu.

There had also been a brief moment of kidnapping and some psychotic ex-girlfriend and such, but that was done with, and overall Sano was much more concerned with the _Aoshi_ factor.

I mean . . . come _on_. _Aoshi!_ Mr. Personality?-What-Personality? Also known as That Psychotic Guy. You Know. The One Who Never Smiles. Or Talks. (Much.) Or Expresses Anything Else That Might, Eventually, In The Long Run, With Time And A Lot (And I Mean A LOT) Of Encouragement, Hint At Something That Vaguely Resembles A Thing That Passed Within Five Feet Of The Sister Of The Nephew Of The Cousin Of A Personality. Maybe. Yeah, Him.

_Aoshi_.

Sano sighed, pushed himself off the wall where he had been brooding (pouting), and wondered if he could get away without paying for his bill at the Akabeko one more time . . . Tae had seemed to be getting pretty genuinely irritated the last few times . . . oh, well.

In the back of his mind, he was wondering how long it might take him to run to Kyoto, and if Sae would be more willing to extend a little credit to a poor, hungry young man, who's willing to work hard but just hasn't found anyone hiring. (He'd be laughed out of Tokyo if he tried that at the Akabeko, but in Kyoto it might work for a week or so.)

But . . . that was in the back of his mind. Food, besides being in the front, was much more import than _anything_ (except possibly sleep, with kicking the asses of annoying people coming in third and sex a close fourth, largely due to the fact that he got so much less of that). Therefore, he would first get food, and then he would think about maybe going to Kyoto. Maybe. 'Cause moving's hard and all, and Katsu's kinda emotionally freaky like that. Guy'd probably appreciate a familiar face around for a bit, really.

So, to recount . . . Sagara Sanosuke was happy, justified, and no longer pouting. He just needed to put "not hungry" on that list, and he'd be very well-off indeed. Not that he was every unhappy or not not pouting, or . . . okay, no he _didn't_ make a habit of wandering around recounting the reasons he wasn't unhappy about his best friend (except for Kenshin, and, as mentioned, that was kinda weird) completely _ditching_ him to run off and frolic with a creepy/freaky/silent-y ex(?)-ninja. He actually tried to make it a habit not to recount much of anything, in general. Because recounting led to remembering and remembering led to regretting and regretting led to re-something-or-other, he forgot, but if he was gonna feel bad, he'd rather just figure out who he needed to punch and be done with it.

Wait, hadn't he been about to do something? Oh!

Food!

Money!

Akabeko! Work! Kyoto! Shirobeko! Katsu(not like that, no way no way no way girlsarepretty!)!

It sounded like a plan. Or as much of a plan as Sano would ever sit down and work out anyways, because what was the point of a big elaborate plan when you knew, you just _knew_, that you were gonna forget something or someone else would bust in all of a sudden, and you always ended up drunk and singing dumb Western songs into the gutter with your hand bleeding all fucking _over_ the place, and not even a pretty girl to keep you company b'cause she was just gonna start panting after Kenshin anyways. Anyways, it was probably a plan, and he didn't have anything to do anyways. He turned resolutely towards the dojo, 'cause if he forgot to tell Kenshin and Jou-chan where he was going, they'd just freak out and Kenshin would go all Battousai and track him down, and it'd be all awkward and embarrassing, and in front of that bastard _Aoshi_ no less.

Sano was already looking forward to spending a month or two in Kyoto – new sights, already had a place to stay, good food, girls who maybe wouldn't be panting after Kenshin . . . the more he thought about it, the better he felt. Of course, the bastard cop was in Kyoto, but, you couldn't have everything, right? And it wasn't like Sano was gonna go out of his was to chat up the police or anything. He might not even _see_ the cricket eyed bastard!

Wouldn't that be nice?


End file.
